Michaels intrigued by new-look Bears

NBC’s Al Michaels will be on the call for the Bears-Steelers “Football Night in America” clash on Sunday night, and he likes what he has seen from Marc Trestman's team.

This will be Michaels’ 25th time calling a prime-time game in Pittsburgh. He also has done prime-time broadcasts of 22 Bears games in Chicago. Yet never before has he done a Bears vs. Steelers game.

“These are two teams that don’t face each other all that much,” Michaels said. “But this just sings pro football. When you say Steelers-Bears, people go 'Whoa.' Two of the iconic franchises that go all the way back. In prime time.”

We caught up with Michaels earlier this week to take his pulse on Sunday’s game. And after he and color commentator Cris Colinsworth were knocked off course by weather delays in Weeks 1 and 2 in Denver and Seattle, respectively, we also made sure to take a peek at the Sunday forecast in Pitttsburgh.

Looks OK. Should be mostly cloudy with game-time temperatures in the mid-50s.

With that out of the way, here are some of Michaels’ thoughts from our conversation.

On the weather-delayed kickoff Sept. 5 between the Broncos and Ravens in Denver and the frequent lightning that caused a 69-minute delay between the Seahawks and 49ers last week:

“I don’t know what’s going on here. The Denver thing was an overreaction, as it turned out. The Seattle thing was real. I mean we could see the lightning. There was never any lightning to appear in Denver. And it’s funny because I’ve always loved the Weather Channel. I’ve always loved looking at maps. I understand what isobars are and all of the rest. I’m not a trained meteorologist. But it’s fun for me to look at that radar. I must say, in Denver I’m looking at the radar when we brought it up and I’m saying, 'What’s the issue?' There’s a bunch of rain, a lot of rain over the Rockies. But there wasn’t a lot of rain in Denver. We had a couple of shots from our plane which actually showed these very localized showers and a patch of blue sky. So let’s put it this way. If ever my local news station KNX (in Los Angeles) needs somebody to do the traffic and weather on the 5s, I’m the next guy up.”

On the contrasting starts and moods for the 2-0 Bears and the 0-2 Steelers:

“Pittsburgh is a team that you look at it and you’re going, 'Whoa, what’s happening here?' They faded last year. They didn’t win a preseason game this year, which doesn’t really mean that much. But in their two games, losing to Tennessee at home and to look the way they did the other night in Cincinnati, I mean there are some obvious concerns. Maurkice Pouncey (who tore his ACL in Week 1) is a gigantic loss for them. Larry Foote (who ruptured a biceps) is a big loss. They can’t get a running back to take over the load. Maybe the rookie Le’Veon Bell (currently out with a foot sprain) will at some point. But the natives are restless. They’re so used to winning.

“They’re ready to fire Mike Tomlin and I’m laughing about that. The guy in six years, all he’s done is taken them to two Super Bowls, won one, has a phenomenal record and yet now he’s a bum to the kneejerk folks. So that’s the Pittsburgh end.

“The Chicago end: 2-0 and two pretty dramatic wins at home. Obviously what happened on Sunday was very dramatic. And of course it’s the post-Lovie Smith era. You had nine years with Lovie, went to a Super Bowl, won some division titles. All things considered it was a nice run. But in comes Marc Trestman, who really came out of nowhere. He was on nobody’s radar. I’ve known Marc for a long time. I like him a lot. He’s been an assistant for a lot of teams. ... I saw him at the owners meetings and was just so very happy for him. He’s a good man. Very smart.

“And Marc Trestman shows his intelligence. Not that Lovie didn’t. I don’t want to compare the two in that sense. I guess just sometimes after nine years people get tired of dealing with each other, writers and coaches and all the rest. So that probably diminished things in that regard through the years. And now here comes Marc and he’s fresh and he’s new and he’s bright and he respects the intelligence of people. And he has a very mathematical mind. I remember once we were in Vegas talking about odds and crap shooting and all of that. He gets it. “

On his most memorable experience covering Devin Hester, who had a 108-yard return of a missed field goal in a 38-20 Bears win over the Giants in 2006: